Ephraim Hardcastle

MEGHAN Markle’s impending wedding to Prince Harry raises protocol problems. While the second son of the heir to the throne is expected to wed relatively privately – in St George’s, Windsor, perhaps – this is no ordinary wedding. Unlike previous royal brides, Ms Markle has a following and fame of her own. So the full grandeur of a royal wedding is now on the cards with St Paul’s being considered – the first royal wedding there since charles married Diana in 1981. HAVING starred in great cinema hits such as 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, 1974’s Chinatown and 1976’s Network, Faye Dunaway, 76, who won an Oscar for the latter, was honoured as ‘a professional whose work has left a mark on the collective imagination’. Why hasn’t this translated into worldly wealth and position? Twice-married Ms Dunaway, after a row with a New York hairdressing salon, has had to pay the full £2,270 bill. In 2011, after a dispute with the landlord, she had to quit her local £750-a-month, rent-controlled flat. SIr Kenneth Branagh, describing his unfeasibly large whiskers as Hercule Poirot in the forthcoming remake of Murder On The Orient Express, pictured, says it’s important to our understanding of the great fictional detective: ‘It took nine months to develop something that would do everything that Agatha christie seemed to want his moustache to do. Poirot’s moustache is one of the ways in which he keeps himself to himself, because so many people dismiss him because of it. They used to bring in the bust of me with the latest version of the moustache stuck on and we’d spend a couple of hours lifting three hairs here, dropping three hairs there.’ STRIKING Tory MP Esther McVey, 50 today, has never married, despite having many male admirers, it is said. Having never had children – ‘no one ever wound up my biological clock’ – she has recalled that her Parliamentary colleague and father of two Ed Vaizey, 49, used to propose to her ‘every two weeks without success’. Do you suppose Ed’s lawyer wife of 12 years, Alex, has cross-examined him on this delicate matter? KENSINGTON Palace officials say William and Kate’s third baby is due some time in April. If it arrives between the 17th and 20th it suggests the new baby was conceived when the couple were promoting the UK in Germany and Poland in July. So what? ‘remainers might claim the baby as one of their own,’ says a politically-minded court source. WOODY Allen’s upcoming movie features a 44-year-old man (played by Jude Law, as it happens) who ‘makes a fool of himself over every ambitious starlet and model’ and is accused of sleeping with a 15-year-old. No change there. In his 1979 film, Manhattan, Allen, then 44, played a television writer who dated a 17-year-old played by Mariel Hemingway. Later she said Allen pursued her when she turned 18, inviting her to Paris, abandoning the plan when she asked for her own room.